


Defying the Odds

by 1_9_9_8



Category: NCIS
Genre: Comfort, F/M, One Shot, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:54:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29104368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1_9_9_8/pseuds/1_9_9_8
Summary: Tim's best man's speech at Torres' and Bishop's wedding.
Relationships: Ellie Bishop & Nick Torres, Ellie Bishop/Nick Torres
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	Defying the Odds

**Author's Note:**

> Keep in mind, this is my first fic and English is my second language so mistakes will be found! Would LOVE feedback!

At last, it was their wedding-day. Nick had finally proposed to the love of his life and everyone was gathered in a beautiful rustic hall to celebrate. To be honest, it wasn’t an easy ride getting the groom to the venue since a case had him hospitalised for the previous night and he had a nasty gash in his neck. In the end all was well and the pair sat next to each other holding hands, living the happiest day of their lives. Jimmy had officiated them outside, under a beautiful flower arch as the sun was setting behind the tree line. They then moved inside a beautiful wooden building that used to be a barn. The ceiling was made out of wood and was covered in fairy lights. There were ten round tables around the big dance floor, which was Nick’s request since he was clear about busting some serious latin-dance-moves in the evening. Bishop chose light flower-arrangements that were placed in the middle of every table and held about five candles each. There were big windows to the woods on both sides of the room. The hall had dim lighting from the candles and fairy-lights, the atmosphere was calm but still electric, it was hard for them to control their happiness. They had invited about hundred guests, almost half of them were from their work-family, even Ziva and Tony had come from Paris with Tali and Abby came back from London. Music was playing and everyone was eating and laughing in their tables. In the main table was their current work-family with McGee next to Nick as his best man and Kasie next to Ellie as her maid of honour. 

Nick was wearing a grey suit with a white shirt and a grey tie. He wasn’t really one for ties and formal clothes, but this after all was as special as occasions get. Still he was clear about taking the tie off as soon as possible. Ellie was wearing a silky off-white - almost light rose - dress. It had an open back that showed her light skin. Her hair was on a messy low bun with some hairs loose. As for jewellery, she had a dainty golden necklace, which she got from Nick for their first anniversary. 

And now it was time for the best man’s toast. McGee stood up from his chair between Nick and Delilah and hit his champagne class couple of times as the room quieted down and all eyes focused on him.

“Thank you, thank you. So ladies and gentlemen, if anyone here doesn’t know, I’m Tim, Bishop and Torres’ friend and colleague. I’m the best man and I’ll be giving a speech on behalf of both the bride and the groom. They have been with me through thick and thin and whilst they know I have nothing but good things to say about them, I don’t think they really thought this through because after all - I also know their whole story with the embarrassing stuff and all.” Tim said and winked his eye at Nick and Ellie who were holding hands next to him, both sharing worried looks but laughing at the same time. 

“So when I was writing this speech I started to go back our cases - starting with the one where we met this one undercover agent - Nicholas Torres, mysterious latino, who was at the time on a mission in South America. If someone here hasn’t yet heard about the couple’s very romantic first meeting let me set the scene. It was a hot day, we had just began an investigation and Bishop here, found a lead. That lead was a photo of the groom. So the first time the bride saw her husbands face was actually on our screen at our N.C.I.S bullpen. At that point Nick had been missing for many months and as he finally touched the US soil, he was immediately faced with two Argentinian men on their way to kill this agent. At this point I want to remind the families here - both the bride and the groom are safe and unharmed so a happy ending is coming.” McGee added after noticing some concerned looks on their parents faces.

“Now if it were any other day, I’d deny Nick’s talent when talking about hand-to-hand-combat trying to control his ego, but this is his day, so I have to admit that he single handedly fought both of those actually quite big guys to the ground, but just as the other one pulled a gun at him and was about to shoot, our bride came in to the picture with our boss - Gibbs. Having ‘neutralised’ the enemy the fairytale started with Ellie pointing her gun at her future husband in an alley somewhere in D.C. I have to admit, this first meeting really puts anyone else’s in shame.” The whole room chuckled as Nick and Ellie high-fived each other.

“Now whilst there are many examples of their bubbling romance let me tell you about the key cases on this love story for the ages.”

“So if we are going in order, first there was the time we stumbled upon a tiny baby in one suspects home. With further investigation we found out that the baby wasn't actually his. He had bought him from a young mom. The reason we started to investigate this further was because the happy couple. Actually the team was looking forward to spending the holidays with family and friends, but these two knuckleheads decided to prolong our work a bit further. Then just “friends” Ellie and Nick were supposed to go and give the baby to the child services, but instead decided to take care of the baby and give it to the right parents. As we were trying to find the mother, they were feeding the baby, changing his diapers and arguing about his name. That was the case that showed me what good parents these two would make - together. This was couple of years before they actually became an item so you can see my frustration with these two who are absolutely the worst when it comes to actually confessing their feelings for one another.” McGee chuckled with the audience. 

“Next there was the accident with a ghost from the past - a girlfriend of Nick’s undercover alias who decided to take faith in to her own hands and run the happy couple over with her - or actually her boyfriends - car. When Ellie told us about what happened at the hospital and how Nick actually pushed Ellie out of the way of the moving car, I was certain that Nick was the one for Ellie. He was the one who would go to the ends of the earth to keep her safe. He’d risk his life to save hers.” The whole room awed and Nick placed a tender kiss on Ellies cheek and she smiled at him, remembering their accident and the fear she felt in the hospital. As McGee continued his speech, she tightened her grip of his hand and felt his eyes looking over her.

“And as Kasie pointed out to me - Ellie was taking Nick's accident a little bit differently than the rest of us. If I remember correctly I brushed her comment of - trying to deny my best friends’ feelings for each other. Not just because of rule twelve - which I’ll explain later - but also because I had been in this exact position not too long ago. Then I saw this exact flirting and the jealous looks on one other couple in here. My dear friends Tony and Ziva." That earned him some whistling from the other side of the room, but McGee continued. "And remembering all those heartbreaks I was weary thinking that these two might be going to that direction in the profession we have. The risks we take every day are enormous but knowing that they look after each other - just like Nick in that accident - I now can be a bit calmer that they have each others backs. Ellie did take that accident a bit differently and that was actually the point when the office started a bet about when the two of them would get together. That was actually the second reason why I was frustrated at their pace. It seemed like they took three steps forward and two steps back. They were there for each other, but for some reason they had to wait until I lost all of my money to Jack. Never bet against a profiler I guess.” He laughed as Jack bowed at him. 

“And then there was the case where we were trying to find missing explosives. This is the case where it all changed between them. And yes you two, we know it happened then, you guys are terrible liars and if I need to remind you, we are after all special agents, so it’s kinda our job to know what is going on.” Tim said looking to his right pointedly. 

“Whilst we all are still a bit unsure what actually happened during this case I can give you the main scene. So yet again Nick and Ellie were on the field together when they somehow ended up locked in jail cells in the middle of nowhere inside an old sheriff’s house - and of course with no reception to call for help. As if that wasn’t enough the cell the bride was in, was actually rigged to explode- and so the their lives depended on Ellie’s boot, which was holding the pressure-switch. Not to give the grandparents any more things to worry about this was actually Ellie’s second bomb-encounter of that week and wasn’t that long after the car-accident. How an earth are they able to find these situations is beyond me.” McGee sighed and got some chuckles from the team and horrified looks from their families. 

“The thing is. After they were rescued Nick called me. And there was this one line that resonated with me; “Close calls make you live harder”. That speaks to all of us who face those close calls way too often. That close call made them live harder. It made them care harder. And it made them love harder. After that, you could see the love that they had for each other all these years evident on their faces. Like it was impossible for them to hide it anymore. Something had shifted.”

“To be honest, the flirting started early on and whilst Torres here was an undercover agent and he likes to remind us about it at least once a week - he really isn’t very good at hiding his emotions, especially when it comes to his feelings for his wife. Every date she went to had him staring to the distance like a lost puppy. Yes, Nick you do that, don’t even try to deny it.” McGee added after Nicks scowling and Ellie’s laughter. “He even canceled one of her dates” Mcgee continued pretending to whisper but the whole room erupted in laughter.

“And to be honest, Ellie, you weren’t better at all. Do I have to remind you that when Nick didn’t come early to work to fill out paperwork with you, you called him thirteen times? And then I had to ping his phone to find him.” McGee looked at Ellie who was red and Nick was poking her side laughing with the rest of the room. “Even when I was trying to deny this romance, sometimes I really considered locking you two in the elevator just so you’d have to talk it out. Actually maybe I should’ve since you two came to your senses after being locked in those jail cells.” He shrugged his shoulders. After all that was the truth. 

“Okay, now I’m getting sidetracked. I watched this courting dance for four years. Sometimes he actually danced for her. In the middle of the office. In that time they did almost everything a couple would do. They drove to work together, they went to dinner or after a particularly difficult case drinking together. They unplugged together, ran together and did goat yoga together. They even argued like a married couple. Mostly in Spanish actually. Still, even when Ellie’s brothers stopped by, I’ve heard Nick’s answer to their interrogation was something like ‘She’s not my type. Like not at all.’.” Nick looked at McGee as Ellie smacked him lightly on his elbow and her brothers laughed on the other side of the room. “It looks like that has changed, huh, groom?” McGee asked Nick who was staring at the ceiling as if he weren’t listening.

“After all isn’t that the point. It’s the little things. Nick bringing Ellie her favourite chips from a vending machine just because he knows she likes them. Their relationship has evolved through the years and made them the man and woman they are now. They were there for each other when we lost a team member, Clayton Reeves, who I know would love to be here with us, celebrating you.” The whole team had tears in their eyes, remembering their lost brother. “Through it all. The hard times and the good ones, the low points and the high ones and the grieving and the laughing, these two were together. Holding each other up.”

“So moving on, as you can see it was pretty obvious that there were feelings between them all that time. Still, they remembered our team’s - or rather Gibbs’ - rules. And specifically rule number twelve - you don’t date a co-worker. When this whole thing came public I asked the surprisingly happy Gibbs, well what about rule 12, he had two points.” McGee looked at Gibbs who laughed remembering his answer. 

“First point being rule number fifty-one: sometimes you’re wrong. This is being one of those (very few) cases. Co-workers dating might be disastrous in our field, but with Ellie and Nick - they defy odds, they are the one exception to all rules and it just works and not just for them but in the field they are a power couple. From disarming bombs to chasing criminals and taking care of stolen babies, they read each other like an open book and it is impossible to stop them. Believe me, many have tried.” Ellies brother’s wooed and high-fived each other as she buried her head in her hands embarrassed of her loving, but extremely enthusiastic brothers.

“The second point is rule number five - you don’t waste good. And that is the core of this couple. With numerous obstacles, life threatening cases and way too many close calls, Ellie and Nick were meant to be. While it might be easier to guard your heart and close it from love in the fear of losing someone who had access to it, even after their lifetime of trauma Ellie and Nick saw the love within each other and did what they do every day for our country. They fought. They fought to defy the odds, they fought for each other, to keep each other safe and to always come home to one another. That after all is the key to their relationship. There was never a day, even years before they were together that they didn’t fight for each other like their lives depended on it.”

At that point the whole room was in tears. Even Nick had watery eyes and was holding his wife’s hand. Then McGee turned his focus back to the couple. 

“You two. You are the ultimate example of love being the most important thing in the world. You make each other better and that I know for a fact. The love that you have for each other is extraordinary to watch and witness every day. So now, I make a promise to you both. Whilst I know you have each others backs, I promise that I’ll always have yours. I’m going to do everything in my power to bring you back to each other every day. It is an honour to work next to you and still learn from the both of you every day.” This was the last drop and Nick had to hand Ellie a tissue for her tears. They both knew that McGee didn’t have to say this for them to know it, but it still shook them both. It was the way he said it. Without a shadow of a doubt. They weren’t in this alone. They had their team, which was rooting for them as always. Nick mouthed a ‘thank you’ to his best man and so McGee turned to the audience. 

“Now. If I may, I’d like to rise a glass to the happy couple. The couple who defies the odds and brakes the rules. To Ellie and Nick!”

The whole room raised their glasses and clapped as McGee then hugged both Nick and Ellie. “I mean it. I love you, both.” He whispered to both of them. Both Nick and Ellie thanked their best friend. It was the perfect speech that described them both so entirely. After all, it was done by the person they both trusted with their lives every single day. The man who knew them better than they themselves.


End file.
